FRASOR COMMITS TO UNC

Ben Sherman, Jeff Goodman

06/02/2004

Bobby Frasor has committed to North Carolina. The 6-3 rising senior guard from Chicago (Ill.) Rice took an unofficial visit to Chapel Hill on Monday and called the UNC coaching staff on Wednesday evening with his decision to become a Tar Heel.

"The main reason I committed was when I was there, getting the chance to talk to all the players and what they had to say about the program and Coach [Roy] Williams - how great a coach he was, it just made me feel good," Frasor told Inside Carolina Wednesday evening.

"When he visited, there was nothing he didn't like," Brother Rice coach Pat Richardson said. "The campus and the staff, the players and the people in Chapel Hill. It wasn't an easy decision, though."

Frasor, who will turn 18 years old this fall, chose the Tar Heels over Stanford, according to sources close to the situation. The other schools in consideration were Marquette, Kansas, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Georgia Tech, among others. Marquette and Stanford were the two schools to receive official visits.

"What it came down to, looking at the pros and cons, analyzing everything, was just a gut feeling," Frasor said. "I felt so good while I was there - I was smiling the whole time. I just knew what I wanted to do when I got back."

Richardson added, "The only thing I asked him is whether he was sure and he said, 'yes'.

"The visit was everything. He was hoping he'd like it and he loved it. He felt like he'd have an opportunity to play and he's always liked the ACC, but it wasn't a slam dunk. He talked to his parents, his sisters and we talked today."

The knock on Frasor heading into the spring had been the consistency on his outside shot, but after hitting 9-of-10 three-pointers in a late April game at the Kingwood Classic with Williams sitting courtside, the offer from the Tar Heels came a couple days later.

Frasor is a true combo guard. He plays the point guard spot for his high school squad,
averaging 13 points, six rebounds and five assists per game as a sophomore and 12.5 points, 5.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and two steals last season.

But those scoring numbers are deceptive, as he plays the off guard slot for his Illinois Wolves AAU squad in the summer -- and anyone in attendance at last weekend's Tournament of Champions in the Triangle knows that he has the ability to put up bigger offensive totals -- as evidenced by his 30.4 points per game average in the tournament, including just under 50 percent on three-point attempts

He cites Mike Bibby, Travis Diener, and Kirk Hinrich as his favorite players -- though Hinrich stands atop the list, playing for the hometown Chicago Bulls. And Frasor wears his No. 12 jersey on the AAU circuit.

Off the court, he's a model student, sporting a 4.5 GPA and ranks 7th out of 275 students in his high school class. Both his parents are school teachers, and his father, Bob, played for Wisconsin in the early 1970s.

Frasor is the second commitment from the Class of 2005 for Roy Williams and his staff, joining guard Marcus Ginyard.